You are a Local Business and the world around you has changed so much. It seems that everything and everyone is online. If that is your thoughts; you are so right. If your Local Business is not yet online, now is the time, but to get going you first need to understand the basics of online marketing for local businesses.



Basics of Online Marketing

As a local business owner, you probably know that paying for advertising can be costly. But there are other things you can do to promote your business and increase its visibility online.

We all know that the Internet is a great place to promote local businesses and drive traffic to them, but it’s also important to understand how to effectively use search engines and social media platforms. No matter what kind of business you run, there are ways you can optimize your marketing efforts and make sure your website is seen by the right people.

The key here is understanding how each of these channels works so that when you do use them, you maximize the results for your business.

Search engines like Google offer several ways to reach out to different types of people: 

  • Search queries
  • Web referrals
  • Social media posts
  • Special content (links)

But these aren’t all the ways you have access to reach out and find other people interested in what’s happening in your area. Social media platforms like Facebook allow users to share their interests with others who are interested in similar topics.

You don't need a huge audience for this type of advertising, though: just enough people who care about your topic. Remember, it’s always good practice when promoting your Local Business to a market in the same industry as yours. 



Create a unique and effective online marketing strategy for your business.


First off, there are tons of different ways to advertise online. You can use Facebook ads, Twitter, LinkedIn profiles and more. There’s hardly a company that hasn’t seen huge success from social media marketing. But not all methods are created equal and the considerations that come with each marketing strategy can vary from company to company.

In order to make the best choice for your business in terms of using social media promotions is to take into consideration what your market wants, what their goals are and also how they want their brand represented through social media campaigns.

The first thing you should consider is whether or not this promotion is one of your core marketing strategies and if so then why? 

  • Why do you want customers to visit your website? 
  • What benefits does this promotion offer? 
  • What would you like them to remember about it? 

The second question is about how active do you plan on being in regards to this particular promotion?

This can be determined by looking at various metrics such as number of visitors who see the advertisement etc. 

The third question is about how long will the campaign run for? 

This will depend on the length and duration of any given campaign but it should also be an objective factor in determining how much time will be spent on promoting this specific campaign (especially if it's a seasonal campaign).

Lastly, what type of content should be included in these advertisements? 

This depends on the type of product or service being provided as well as other factors such as target audience size etc. Once these key questions have been answered then there are several other factors that play into making a good decision concerning which promotional strategy is right for your business.



You should look at things like:

  • What drives traffic towards my website/local business/social media profiles/services/merchandise etc.? 
  • What goals does my target audience have when they visit my website or connect with my brand online? 
  • Are there any other websites or blogs that I could link to from which I could get traffic? 
  • Which tools do I currently use? 
  • How many people do I think will view my advertisement during a specific time frame (e.g google organic search)?